In April 1940, a 20 year-old farm boy from South Wairarapa joined the RNZAF as a trainee pilot. By war's end, in August 1945, Vic Bargh had flown 17 aircraft types, including the ill-fated Brewster Buffalo, survived almost 200 operations in the Far East and the Pacific, and been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. His dreams of flying were fulfilled in DH60 Moths and Chance Vought Corsairs - 100-hp to 2200-hp. At war's end, Vic Bargh turned his back on aviation and became an innovative, large herd dairy farmer.
Ketchil is the war story of Charles Victor Bargh, published to mark 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. He was a survivor of the largely forgotten air war over Burma and India. Not content with that, he later served on Bougainville. In bringing his war to life, and that of many other New Zealand airmen, Neil Frances has combined oral history, wartime letters, unpublished photographs and three years of research.